Murdered civil rights activist Viola Fauver Gregg was born in California, Pennsylvania, however, her family moved through Georgia and Tennessee to escape segregation before eventually relocating to Michigan during World War II.

In 1943, she became the wife of George Argyris, but the couple eventually divorced, and she married Teamsters business agent Anthony Liuzzo in 1950.

The newlyweds then settled in Detroit, becoming active participants in local civil rights causes through the Detroit NAACP chapter and attending the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Detroit.

Viola Liuzzo also protested discriminatory educational policies, going as far as to withdraw her own children from public school as a statement as she put in long hours working toward reform.

In 1965, moved by national coverage of “Bloody Sunday,” Liuzzo joined the Selma-to-Montgomery march, transporting civil rights workers in her 1963 Oldsmobile from Detroit to Alabama.

Sadly, on the night of March 25, while driving Leroy Moton, a 19-year-old Black volunteer, she would be assassinated by the Ku Klux Klan, a bold sacrifice that forced the nation at large to face the cost of justice head on and one that immortalized her as the only white woman to be killed in the Selma incident.

In the days after Viola’s death, the FBI did the predictable thing and got to work smearing her reputation in the press by leaking false stories about her morality and alleged drug use.
Regardless, the truth emerged all the same:

Not only was she not a drug user, but she was indeed killed in cold blood by former KKK members, which included one FBI informant, all of whom were convicted of conspiracy under the Klan Act.

Her death became a center point for the nation’s ongoing battle with civil rights, truth, and accountability.

Although her tragic end came in Alabama, Liuzzo’s impact on Detroit was never forgotten.

The city’s Viola Liuzzo Park bears her name, and in 2023,3 a new civil rights memorial monument was constructed there in her honor, as well as in honor of her dear friend Sarah Evans, who helped care for her children after her death.

Her assassination forced the American people to acknowledge the moral costs of segregation.

She didn’t just stand in solidarity; she embodied it, proving she was willing to lose everything for Black Americans to be viewed as equal to someone like her.

For that, she will never be forgotten.

Victoria Jackson (Editor In Chief)

Victoria Jackson is a lifelong student and sharp-eyed documentarian of all things Detroit, from its rich musical roots and cultural icons to its shifting neighborhoods, storied architecture, and underground legends. With her finger firmly on the pulse of both the city’s vibrant past and its rapidly unfolding future, she brings a deeply personal, historically grounded lens to every piece she writes.

Published on: October 1, 2025